Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a top al Qaeda member, was killed in Somalia today. Mohammed was the mastermind behind the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Mohammed was killed at a Somali checkpoint. Hit the jump for more details about him.

@Julie1205

A top al Qaeda operative in East Africa, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, was killed at a Somali checkpoint, a senior Kenyan official said Saturday. Mohammed was long sought in Somalia for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

“There’s reason to believe this senior terrorist is dead,” a U.S. official who was not authorized to speak on the record said Saturday. “He was killed, it appears, at a Somali police checkpoint in or around Mogadishu.”

The commander of Somalia’s government forces confirmed that two men driving through a checkpoint southwest of Mogadishu late Wednesday were killed when both opened fire on soldiers there.

One of the men was a foreigner and his identity is under investigation, Gen. Abdikarin Dhega Badans said.